Direct susceptibility tests (DSTs) from positive blood cultures are used by many clinical laboratories. Acinetobacter is an emerging pathogen and studies evaluating DSTs do not include a representative proportion of this organism. For Acinetobacter, DSTs in this study presented an agreement of 73.8 per cent (93/126 antibiotic-organism combinations), with minor errors=8.73 per cent, major errors=13.5 per cent, and very major errors=3.97 per cent. We recommend that DSTs be used cautiously in institutions where this organism is common.